PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 65 
duller hues characteristic of winter assimilating 
with the barer ground—the sands and mud-flats. 
It is worthy of remark that the species which do 
not present this great diversity in their seasonable 
change of plumage—such as the Snipes and Wood- 
cocks—confine themselves to haunts clothed with 
vegetation all the year round ; or—as in the case of 
the Ringed Plovers—to bare sands and shingles. 
In their moulting the Limicole are most interesting. 
It is impossible to enter very fully into the details 
of this function in the present volume, nor is it 
necessary, for the purpose of this study of marine 
bird-life, to do so. A few of the most salient facts, 
however, may be mentioned. The young of all 
Limicoline birds are hatched covered with down, 
and are able to run soon after their breaking from 
the shell. They consequently spend little time in 
the nest, after they are hatched. This down varies 
considerably not only in the pattern of the colour, 
but in the colour itself. Some of these chicks, or 
young in down, are beautifully striped or spotted ; 
others are sprinkled or dusted with darker or lighter 
tints than the general colour. In all, however, the 
colours are eminently protective ones, and harmonise 
so closely with the hues of surrounding objects that 
discovery is difficult; more especially so as the 
chicks possess the habit of crouching motionless to 
the ground when menaced by danger. The first 
plumage of the young bird in the present order, 
approaches more or less closely in colour that of 
E 
